The present invention generally relates to the field of telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for billing and routing toll-free calls based on the local geographies of the originating number and of the terminating number.
Toll-free calls, also known as Inward Wide Area Telephone Service (INWATS) calls, allow a long distance subscriber to reverse the charges by permitting originating parties to call the subscriber without accruing long distance charges. In the United States, toll-free service is currently available for intrastate and interstate calls. Over the last twenty years, the volume of toll-free calls has increased to the extent that its traffic has become a substantial percentage of all toll calls. Toll-free service is especially useful for entities such as reservation call centers, retail call centers, hospitals, emergency hotlines, professional services, retail dealers, radio/TV promotions, government call centers, and education call centers.
An entity will often have a single advertised toll-free telephone number that is applicable to multiple locations and multiple services. Having a single advertised number helps to eliminate the expenses which would otherwise be associated with advertising the different locations and services with a different phone number for each. Additionally, advertising a single toll-free number can make it easier for a caller to remember the entity""s phone number and easier to access multiple services with one phone call. For example, this is especially true for a nationally franchised pizza delivery business having a large number of business establishments all providing common goods and services. This allows a customer to remember one toll-free number that can be called from any location in the United States and routed to a local business establishment to order a pizza for local delivery.
In general, toll-free service connects an originating number through a series of switches connected to a long-distance carrier""s communication network. The network queries a database to validate the toll-free number and to select a directory number (DN) for the terminating location of the toll-free number. The terminating number is then communicated to the long-distance carrier""s switch and the call is routed via direct access or via local switches serving the terminating number.
There are numerous methods for routing toll-free calls. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,860 of Weber, discloses a routing method to access one of a number of reservation offices of a national airline using a common toll-free telephone number. According to Weber, a caller dials a toll-free number which together with the numbering plan area code (NPA, the first three digits of the caller""s ten digit number) is used along with the toll-free number dialed by the caller to access a database to translates the toll-free number into a terminating number in the form of a Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) number to which the call is routed. Since the translation compares the caller""s NPA and the dialed toll-free number, callers from different NPAs may be routed to different reservation offices. Furthermore, the use of the translation permits out-of-hours traffic to be routed to a different set of reservation office than busy hour traffic.
Another routing example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,126 of Velamuri, et al., which discloses a method and system of routing an originating number to a particular subscriber location within a plurality of subscriber locations based on the geographic area from which the call originated. The method includes identifying the originating number with a specific location identifier indicating the location of the originating number, providing a range table of selected ranges of location identifiers and if the specific location identifier is within one of the selected ranges of the range table, the call is routed to the terminating number corresponding to the selected range containing the specific location identifier. If the specific location identifier is not located within one of the selected ranges, the call is routed to the terminating number corresponding to the specific location identifier located in an auxiliary database containing subscriber locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,267 of Riskin discloses a toll-free telephone system that routes an originating call to one of many nearby dealers (terminating numbers) based upon the coordinates of the originating number and upon the coordinates of the central office serving the dealer. A comparison is performed between the originating number and geographic locations of one to three selected nearby dealers. The system automatically dials the terminating number of the closest dealer thereby routing the originating number. If the terminating number is busy or does not answer, the system can attempt to call an alternate nearby dealer if one exists. The system further provides for billing each nearby dealer based on the number of incoming telephone calls and for reporting to each dealer the details of the incoming calls. This system can be uneconomical for local dealers and central offices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,636 of Wegrzynowicz discloses a method for selecting a local dealer out of a large group of dealers for completion of a toll-free number. The caller is first connected to a toll switching system. That system sends a query to a first database using the toll-free number and the geographic information of the originating number. The first database responds with a routing number which is used to route a second query to one of a plurality of second databases. The second query uses the routing number and the geographical information of the originating number to access the second database and to obtain the terminating number of a local dealer. The terminating number is returned to the toll system for completing the call.
While each of these patents disclose methods for routing toll-free calls based on geographic information of the originating number and of the terminating number, none disclose a method for routing a local toll-free call via direct access by a local service provider. The term xe2x80x9clocal toll-free callxe2x80x9d is used as a term of art herein to mean a toll-free call wherein the originating number and the terminating number (i.e., the toll-free number) are in the same Local Calling Area (LCA) or are in the same Local Access and Transport Area (LATA).
Today""s toll-free subscribers are billed based on toll tariff rates and a variety of factors, such as, the number of subscriber lines, monthly hours of usage, time of day, and other factors. However, local toll-free calls are eligible for billing based on local tariff rates at substantially less cost to the subscriber. Despite this eligibility for discounted local toll-free billing, current industry practice is to bill toll-free subscribers either a fixed amount or a flat-rate per minute for each incoming call regardless of whether the toll-free call is considered local or toll. In addition, subscribers are not given the flexibility to allocate subscriber locations based on billing discounts. For example, a subscriber cannot assign geographic calling areas to a terminating number based on billing discounts.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide toll-free methods and systems to bill and route local toll-free calls via local service providers. Similarly, there is a need in the art to provide subscribers with the flexibility to route incoming local toll-free calls based on discounted local toll-free billing, demographic information of originating numbers, call volumes, times of day, and other factors.
Stated generally, the present invention includes methods and systems for routing local toll-free calls via local service providers. The methods and systems allow local service providers to market new services to their customers. The methods and systems may be particularly advantageous to toll-free subscribers who are in large metropolitan areas or who desire to provide only a single toll-free number to their callers and receive a large number of calls from within their own LCA and intraLATA.
Current toll-free systems involve routing an originating call through the local switches and Service Control Point (SCP) of a Local Service Provider (LSP) to a subscriber""s interexchange carrier (IXC) who provides long distance transmission of the call. A LSP is a provider of local access functionality to an originating party (i.e., the party placing the toll-free call). The IXC pays the LSP for servicing the call, in the form of an xe2x80x9coriginating access charge.xe2x80x9d Thereafter, the IXC can route the toll-free call via their own dedicated access to the subscriber""s terminating number or via an LSP switch that services the geographical area of the terminating number. If the IXC uses the LSP to route the originating call to the terminating number, then the IXC pays the LSP a xe2x80x9cterminating access charge.xe2x80x9d
The present invention routes the originating call through the local switches to a regional SCP associated with a LSP. The SCP receives the dialed toll-free number and queries the 800 Service Management System (SMS) database to translate the dialed toll-free number to the terminating number. The SCP then examines the originating number and the terminating number to determine if the toll-free call is within the same LATA or if the toll-free call is outside of the LATA. If the toll-free call is within the same LATA, the originating call is routed via participating local switches to the terminating number. If the toll-free call is outside of the LATA, the call is routed to the IXC for further processing and routing.
When an originating party calls the subscriber paying for the toll-free service, the originating party dials the digits xe2x80x9c800xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c888xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c877xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c866xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9c855,xe2x80x9d or another toll-free three (3) digit prefix, in place of an Numbering Plan Area (NPA) code that is used with the DN. An NPA code is the initial group of three (3) digits of a North American Numbering Plan (NANP) number that divides the United States into geographical xe2x80x9carea codes.xe2x80x9d The format of an NPA number is NXX, where N is any digit from 2 to 9 and X is any digit from 0 to 9. The format of a DN is NXX-XXXX. Since the three (3) digit toll-free prefix (i.e., 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, etc.) does not designate a particular geographical location for termination, the prefix represent a xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d telephone number referred to as a service access code (SAC). Hence, the ten digit toll-free number (e.g., xe2x80x9c800-NXX-XXXxe2x80x9d) must be translated to the terminating number (e.g., xe2x80x9cNPA-NXX-XXXX). Thereafter, the local SCP routes the originating call based upon the wire center (using the NPA-NXX) or to a block group (using the entire NPA-NXX-XXXX) of the originating number and based upon the NPA-NXX of the terminating number. Routing may also be distributed among multiple participating LSPs that service the terminating number.
As mentioned above, a subscriber can chose wire center routing (using the NPA-NXX) or granular block group routing (using the entire NPA-NXX-XXXX). Block groups are defined for the entire United States by the Census Bureau and typically encompass a much smaller geographic area than a wire center. This gives a subscriber a greater degree of flexibility in defining which geographic areas should be routed to which subscriber locations. At the time of the initial subscription, the subscriber assigns the wire centers or block groups within its service area to the subscriber locations to which calls for these geographic areas should be routed to determine billing.
The present invention works in conjunction with a subscriber""s existing toll-free service provider (IXC). FCC guidelines allow a toll-free subscriber to select a long distance carrier (IXC) for toll calls and one or more local carriers (LSPs) for local calls. Thus, a subscriber can have two or more different carriers serving its toll-free service.
To develop competitive offers to subscribers, a local communications network (SCP) first compares the originating number with the terminating number to classify the call as local or toll for routing and billing. A call eligible for local delivery to a participating LSP may be billed to the subscriber according to local discount rates set forth in a local toll guide. On the other hand, a call that is not eligible for local delivery (i.e., the call is long distance or there is no participating local LSP) is routed via current industry practice and is generally billed to the subscriber according to its arrangement with the long distance toll-free service provider.
The local toll guide may work in conjunction with a subscriber""s existing toll-free service provided by another carrier (IXC). According to the local toll guide, the subscriber may be provided two unique local toll-free ratesxe2x80x94one rate for calls within the LATA outside of their Local Calling Area (LCA) and another rate for calls within their LCA. There may also be volume and term discounts. Volume may be determined using the aggregate total of all intraLATA toll-free minutes of use (MOUs) for all toll-free numbers. Term may be determined by the number of months (i.e., 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, etc.) committed to the participating LSP.
In another aspect the present invention may allow a subscriber to modify its own database(s) of terminating locations directly. The database contains information based on originating numbers, dialed toll-free numbers, locations of terminating numbers, call volumes, times of day, routing features, and other aspects. In accordance with prior practice, a subscriber is provided with a toll-free number which is used to access the subscriber""s database(s) for modification. After the subscriber dials the database with its toll-free number, the subscriber is routed to an interface that allows the subscriber to log on. The subscriber specifies an NPA code or an NPA-NXX code for which the subscriber wishes to modify the terminating numbers in the database. The system queries the INWATS database to identify the particular database that contains translation information for that subscriber and that NPA code(s). The subscriber is then routed to that database and enters changes. After completion of changes for a particular NPA, the subscriber is returned to the main menu where the subscriber can enter another NPA or NPA-NXX code. While this feature may be provided for some subscribers, others may have their database modified by the LSP by submitting a work order to begin the process.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a method of billing that incorporates geographic locations of the originating number and/or terminating number according to Number Portability (NP). That is, an NPA-NXX is considered to be ported when any subscriber previously served from an End Office (EO) associated with the NPA-NXX moves to another LSP and keeps the same 10-digit NPA-NXX-XXXX.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide call routing instructions based on different billing categories of geographic locations of the originating number and terminating number.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide local toll-free billing and routing in conjunction with toll-free number enhanced features.
It is another aspect of the present invention to minimize the number of queries to databases to obtain call billing instructions.
It is another aspect of the present invention to minimize the number of queries to obtain call routing instructions.
The aspects, features and advantages of present invention are described in more detail below with reference to the embodiments depicted in the attached figures. Further aspects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description provided.